Publication: Global Economic Crisis and Trade : The Role of Trade Facilitation
Abstract
The onset of the global economic crisis has led to a slump in global demand. However, the extent to which major trading powers have reduced their imports has differed by trading partner. Like financial contagion, could it be the case that countries that are better integrated in the global trading system via efficient trade facilitation environment suffered the most because of their interconnectedness? Using recent data from the US census bureau, this study finds that the efficiency of the trade facilitation environment actually helped to mitigate the effects of the global slump in demand. Other countries with a better trade facilitation environment suffered less of a drop in their exports to the United States compared to those with a weaker trade facilitation environment. Specifically, an extra day's delay in the exporting country accounted for about a 0.5% more fall in import demand from the United States.
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Publication The Impact of Regional Trade Agreements and Trade Facilitation in the Middle East North Africa Region(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-02)The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region's trade performance over the past two decades has been disappointing. Efforts to boost trade through a plethora of regional trade agreements (RTAs) are underway. This study examines the potential contribution of regional trade agreements, as well as trade facilitation improvements, in enhancing the development prospects of the region. Using the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model and database, both intra-regional integration and integration with the European Union are observed to have a favorable impact on welfare in the MENA region. The welfare gains from integrating with the European Union are observed to be at least twice as much as intra-regional integration. 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Our results are highly robust to estimation using alternative dependent and independent variables, different country samples, and alternative econometric techniques. We link these findings to recent advances in trade theory that emphasise firm heterogeneity, and trade growth at the extensive margin.Publication The Global Resort to Antidumping, Safeguards, and other Trade Remedies amidst the Economic Crisis(2009-09-01)This paper examines newly available data from the World Bank-sponsored Global Antidumping Database tracking the worldwide use of trade remedies such as antidumping, countervailing duties, global safeguards and China-specific safeguards during the current economic crisis. The data indicate a marked increase in WTO members combined resort to these instruments beginning in 2008 that continued into the first quarter 2009. The use of these import-restricting instruments is increasingly affecting "South-South" trade, i.e., developing country importers initiating and imposing new protectionist measures primarily affecting developing country exporters, with a special emphasis on exports from China. However, the collective value of imports in 2007 for the major (G-20) economies that has subsequently come under attack by the use of import-restricting trade remedies during the period of 2008 to early 2009 is likely less than $29 billion, or less than 0.45 per cent of these economies total imports, though there is substantial variation across countries. While the level of trade affected thus far may be small for most of these economies, a first assessment of some of the case-level data identifies a number of ways in which the crisis use of these import-restricting trade remedies may have economically important welfare-distorting effects on economic activity.Publication Facilitating International Production Networks : The Role of Trade Logistics(Taylor and Francis, 2013-06-25)Networked trade in parts and components is more sensitive to the importer's logistics performance than is final goods trade. The difference between the two trade semi-elasticities is over 45%, which is quantitatively important. We also find that logistics performance is particularly important for trade among developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, which is where the emergence of production networks has been most pronounced. Logistics performance is also more important for South–South trade than for South–North trade. Our results suggest that developing country policymakers can support the development of international production networks by improving trade logistics performance.Publication Facilitating International Production Networks : The Role of Trade Logistics(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-10)This paper shows that networked trade in parts and components is more sensitive to the importing country's logistics performance than is trade in final goods. In the baseline specification, the difference between the two trade semi-elasticities is around 45 percent, which suggests that the effect is quantitatively important. In addition, the analysis finds that logistics performance is particularly important for trade in the Asia-Pacific region, which is exactly where the emergence of international production networks has been most pronounced over recent years. The results suggest that policymakers can support the development of international production networks by helping improve trade logistics performance.
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